


The trikru Natblida

by Ghelik



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 15:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10516413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghelik/pseuds/Ghelik
Summary: That winter in Polis.





	

Roan likes watching the natblida fight. Most of the natblida are trikru, which has his mother in a piss-poor mood, but he doesn't mind. His mother's anger is not his problem.

He likes the girl with the wild mane of curly hair and sharp keen eyes best. She fights like a dancer, is clever and quick like a panther. The rest have little to no chance against her. 

Sometimes he asks their fleimkeper for a training session with the natblidas. He is not supposed to, but nobody seems to have any objections. Azgeda’s Throne Prince Hector is on good terms with the Commander, so Azgeda’s second prince gets a lot of free range in Polis. 

Roan’s not about to complain. Echo is tired of their long stay in Polis, but he enjoys his time here. He’s made many good friends, is far away from Nia and from Hector’s mad plots to overthrow their mother. 

“Fine morning” he calls when the beautiful trikru natblida walks out of the training grounds towards where he is waiting. Her smile is blinding and she looks so beautiful, even with the blackeye she got the day before.

He would like to say fight is the only thing he does with her, but that would not be true.

He enjoys her company: she’s funny in a very dry way, and has an older brother - they compare notes on how annoying elder brothers can be. They're not supposed to fuck. Natblida are holy and he's not nearly holy enough. But she asks him to and he's only human.

Echo is exasperated and a little bit offended by it. His mother would be livid. The fleimkeeper would have his hide. The Commander would punish her, because the Commander doesn't like her very much. Part of the appeal lies in the secrecy of it all. In the sense of urgency and sneakiness. 

His winter in Polis is the best he can remember. 

 

***

 

The Commander dies suddenly. One day he just doesn't wake back up and everyone knows what that means. Luna looks at him with wide, terrified eyes. He smiles at her and squeezes her shoulder. He knows she's thinking about her brother: two years her senior, twice his size and strong like a bull. "You have no choice" he tells her and looks at her until she nods. 

He, like everyone else, watches the matches from the sidelines. Sometimes it's Luna against other natblida, other's it's others. Roan can't take his eyes of any of them, begging and praying that the weakest wins to make it easier for Luna later. 

Which is irrational, because he knows her, she's ruthless and strong and can win against any of these children. 

Then she's pitted against her brother. He wants to reassure her, but the security around the natblida has been upped to the maximum and she's not allowed to leave the tower anymore. The fight is bloody and, for once in his life, Roan isn't sure if she'll win, because if Luna is the best fighter, Marek is nearly as good. 

But her sword  goes through his throat and the huge man goes down like a stone. Roan can nearly see something shattering inside her. 

He bribes his way into the tower, careless of who finds him, and storms into her private quarters. Luna is just sitting on her bed staring blankly at her blood-splattered hands. Everything he wanted to say, everything he wanted to do, he forgets. He's at a loss of words. So he just sits next to her and gathers the shaking girl into his arms. 

"I'll loose the next fight." she tells him, matter-of-factly.

"No. You won't."

 

 

“I don’t want to fight.”

Roan swallows the thick lump in his throat.  

“You have to.” he blinks those stupid tears away and she huffs. 

They sit in silence for a long while, until finally she pulls back. “I am not going to fight. Death is better than…”

He doesn’t mean to be disrespectful, or shut up _the future commander_  - because there’s no way in hell she’s not winning - but he really cannot bare to hear her talk like that, cannot bare to think about the possibility of her not surviving.

 

***

 

It’s Echo who comes up with the idea, because of course Echo would just suggest vanishing into thin air. It worked for her, why wouldn’t it work for everybody else. 

“Promise you win two more” he whispers. “We need more time to procure safe-passage.”

Echo is doing all the shifty spy-y things she does so well and he’s trying to be helpful - which consists mainly on trying to keep his shit together, be as not-suspicious as possible and keep Luna fighting just for a bit longer. It’s unnerving seeing his natblida spiraling into a pit of despair. 

Her fighting gets sloppier with each passing day, and he's starting to fear the match when she'll be pitted against the Late Commander's favorite, because in her current state she might not win. 

 

***

 

They flee the day she was supposed to fight against the late commander’s favorite. 

“You could come with me.” she tells him, standing by the stones to the sea. 

Roan shakes his head while Echo lurks by the treeline, looking exasperated and nervous. “My mother would hunt me to the ends of the world. And then you would have to kill the Commander in another ritual fight.”

She shudders, rubbing at her hands like they’re still covered in her brother’s black blood. “Thank you.”

“Just... keep fighting ok? In your own way?”

She nods, serious and kisses his cheek. “You, too, my friend.”

 

Of course his mother is livid when he finds out. The new heda _is_  the previous commander’s favorite. She’s sly and smart and has a huge grudge against Azgeda, but she plays her cards just right and Nia has to banish him or be left out of a twelve-clan-alliance that is exactly what Azgeda needs right now. The little woman smiles at Roan after his mother banishes him and whispers a "thank you" into his ear. 

Roan could go to the sea. He thinks about it for a short while. But then word that Nia has killed her first born after one too many coup attempts reaches him and he has to stay. Has to find a way of getting back and make sure Nia doesn't drive Azgeda to the ground. 

Time passes, and the beautiful natblida bleeds into the back of his mind, turns into a warm memory. A certainity that, maybe he can’t help his people out of his mother’s tyrannical rule. But he did help this one, exceptional girl. 

Maybe, some day, he’ll see his friend again. Until then he’ll keep fighting in his own way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading.


End file.
